The incident has had a lasting impact on Sarniak-Thomson who continues to suffer pain in her hip and now needs a walking stick to aid her mobility. “I’ve had to stop playing the organ at church because I can’t get up the stairs. I find it annoying because I used to enjoy it.”
MONIQUE FORD / Fairfax NZ/Stuff
Sarniak-Thomson said Stride owed a duty of care to its customers, and was disappointed by the company’s response. With another person being knocked down, it appeared nothing had been done to make the doors safer, she said. Sarniak-Thomson has learned to live with the discomfort but what rankles her most is the denial of responsibility and the lack of common courtesy to check in on her after she was injured on and by the mall’s property.